A Window seat
by Twigglet25
Summary: 3 different years, 2 people and 1 window seat. Rose's troubles as she grows up from a girl to a woman and Hermione's advice and comfort.
1. Chapter 1

**Christmas Holidays 2018**

"Rose?" Hermione asked as she gently knocked on her daughter's bedroom door.

"Yeah?" Came the soft voice of her daughter through the wood.

Hermione took this as confirmation she could enter and opened the door, stepping into the pale blue room which, apart from the garishly orange Chudley Canon posters, so reminded her of her own childhood bedroom. She quickly saw her daughter curled up on the window seat, a book in hand. However instead of reading it she was vacantly gazing out the window into the bright winter white sky. Hermione moved to sit down on Rose's bad, smoothing the covers as she did so.

"I was wondering if you want to help me cook up some mince pies. I thought we could make them for Auntie Minerva tomorrow."

Hermione watched as Rose jumped slightly out of her reverie and turned her head towards her. At twelve years old Rose's bushy red hair was finally just reaching her shoulders, she'd been trying to grow it since the age of nine when she realised that the longer her hair was the less is would stick outwards. A smattering of freckles fell across her nose and Hermione's own brown eyes looked back at her as she spoke.

"That sounds great, let's go!"

Rose jumped off the window seat, dropping her book down behind her sand started moving across the room, but as she passed by the bed, Hermione grabbed hold of her wrist.

"Rose," she said softly "what's wrong, you've been quiet ever since you arrived a few days ago."

Rose opened her mouth as if to speak then shut it again, looking confused.

"Nothing mum, I'm just a bit tired." She said

Hermione looked up into her daughters face and saw the lie in her eyes.

"No that's not it sweetie, tell me what's really wrong, why you've been in a daydream so much."

Rose sighed and sat down on the bed next to her mother, curling her legs up underneath her and resting her chin on her knees. There was a silence whilst Rose seemed to be gathering her thoughts. Finally she opened her mouth again.

"Mum, do you think someone can only be good at one thing. Like they can only have one thing they can do really well and everything else they have to be average or bad at?"

Hermione frowned at her daughters odd question and answered quickly,

"No of course not! Someone can be very good at lots of things if they want to be, you don't have to have one special thing!"

Rose nodded slowly and turned her head to look out of the window. There was another silence which Hermione refused to break, she could tell that Rose had something else to say.

"Well then why do people tease me for being clever in class and good at quidditch!" Rose burst out, whipping her head back around to face her mother. "Everyone laughed when I said I was doing team tryouts this year, they said that I was good at being really smart and that I couldn't do quidditch too and then I got in and everyone was so shocked and they kept saying stuff like 'it's not fair you being clever and on the quidditch team' and I don't understand why!"

Rose finally took a breath then buried her face in her knees, Hermione's jaw was slack as she listened to her daughter sniffle. Rose had never once been embarrassed by her talents, tasks she couldn't do, who her friends and family were or the way she looked but now Hermione watched in shock as her daughter's clear distress. She quickly slid an arm around her back and hugged her curled frame close, making comforting sounds until her daughters snuffles stopped.

"Rosie?"

Rose finally looked up, eyes rimmed red, angry pink blotches on her face and her hair a red mane on top of her head.

"People say those kind of things because either they want to do what you can do or they're mean people. The people who say it because they're jealous will realise one day that they're just as good at something else and stop being jealous and the mean people aren't worth your time. You know the only opinions that really matter are the ones from the people that love you, and have any of them said anything like this to you?"

Rose shook her head, wiping her face on her sleeve as she did.

"Then what other people say doesn't really matter, as long as you're happy being able to play quidditch amazingly and being very clever. Are you happy?"

Rose nodded, a watery smile blooming on her face which almost immediately wiped away her blotchy skin.

"Then you don't need to change one little bit."

Rose nodded her head once again and then threw her arms around Hermione, squeezing her into a tight hug. Hermione smiled and buried her face in her daughters hair, savouring the affection from her daughter she'd missed all the while she was at Hogwarts. Eventually Rose drew away from Hermione, bounced off the bed and grabbed her mothers hand.

"Come on then, lets make these mince pies!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Christmas Holidays 2021**

"Rose, how's that packing going?"

Hermione heard no reply from her daughters bedroom so swung open the door to see what Rose was doing. She quickly took in the chaos surrounding her – a half packed trunk was lying on the bed and strewn around it and all over the floor was the remainder of Rose's belongings. Rose herself was seated at her window seat, staring vacantly out into to the crisp blue sky and the snowy fields.

"Rose, I sent you up here to finish packing two hours ago!" Hermione said exasperatedly.

Rose jumped from her seating position and whipped round angrily to face her mother. Hermione was shocked to see a tearstained face staring back at her.

"Rosie, what's wrong?"

"Nothing mum," Rose said, quickly wiping her eyes and nose on her sleeve "Go away."

Hermione took another step into the room and said "It doesn't look like nothing."

"Mum I'm fine, I'll finish my packing now."

Rose jumped off the window seat and quickly grabbed the first thing in reach and threw it into her suitcase.

"Rose," Hermione said warningly

Rose ignored her and carried on throwing things into her suitcase – unfolded clothes getting tangled with old bits of parchment and spell books.

"Rose, stop it right now!" Hermione said loudly.

"You said you wanted me to pack!" Rose half shouted back.

"No, I said I wanted you to tell me what's made you so upset, I'm not having you leave tomorrow knowing that you were crying over something but not knowing what it is."

Rose froze in what she was doing, looked blankly at her mother for a few seconds then dropped the scales she was holding. She collapsed back onto the window seat behind her and curled her knees up to her chin, more tears leaking out her eyes.

"Oh Rosie," Hermione sighed, quickly picking her way across the floor to kneel in front of her daughter "please tell me."

Rose sniffed loudly a few times, tears still leaking out her eyes, then opened her mouth to speak.

"I don't want to go back to Hogwarts," She whispered.

Hermione felt her jaw go slack – Rose had always loved school, she was brilliant in lessons, was on the house quidditch team and adored having a lot of her cousins with her.

"But … why?" Hermione asked in a hushed voice.

"B-b-because I get teased … about the way I look by some people and it's horrid and I don't want to have to hear it anymore!" Rose chocked out.

"What! Who teases you? What do they say?" Hermione asked hurriedly.

Rose sniffed a few more times before speaking again.

"Just some people, a lot of the Slytherins girls and one of the Ravenclaw girls. They say I couldn't be anyone else's daughter and that I look like I've got a burning bush attached to my head. They call me freckles and still do rabbit teeth impressions of me even though we got my teeth shrunk … And I get why they do it because I do look horrid! I'm like some sort of walking freak!"

Hermione sat in shocked silence whilst her daughter cried, taking in her appearance. Rose's fiery hair was now well past her shoulders and had subsequently got slightly less bushy and more just curly, her skin was pale with freckles dotted all over her nose and along her cheek bones, her front teeth were now straight and regular sized after Hermione had finally conceded to magically fixing them in the summer just gone, feeling like a hypocrite if she refused. Hermione could see nothing remotely ugly or freak like in her daughter – she only saw a beautiful girl who was just starting to turn into a young woman.

Hermione sat with her arms around her daughter until her crying had subsided.

"Rose, I thought you knew the way you look doesn't really matter – it's the person you are that does." Hermione said

"I know! I know, you always say that but it doesn't stop people from teasing me and it doesn't stop them from having a point."

"But they don't have a point Rose!" Hermione said, shaking her daughter's shoulders. "You're a beautiful girl, stunning and if they're teasing you about your looks it's only because they're insecure about there own and want to make themselves feel better!"

"But they're all really pretty," Rose whispered

"I'm sure they might be but that doesn't stop them feeling bad about the way they look and it doesn't make you any less beautiful. You don't have to look a certain way to be called beautiful Rosie - then everyone would look the same. I promise that one day you'll be pleased you don't look the same as the other girls because it means someone will notice just how beautiful you, especially when you stand out from the crowd!"

Hermione took a deep breath from her outburst whilst Rose considered what she had said.

"Rose, do any of the people that really matter to you tease you about the way you look?" Hermione asked

Rose shook her head.

"Then does anybody else's opinion matter that much?"

Rose shook her head again.

"That's right, especially as I think you're the most beautiful girl ever and I matter the most – right?" Hermione said, grinning

"I think you're a bit bias mum," Rose said, a smile creeping onto her face.

"That's my job in life Rosie, to embarrass you and to be bias towards you – now shall I help you with this chaos you call packing?"

Rose nodded and grinned, giving her mother a quick squeeze before jumping off of the bed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Christmas Holidays 2023**

"Rose, I brought you some tea," Hermione called through Rose's door after knocking gently.

Her daughter had disappeared an hour or so ago to try to get some of her homework out of the way. Hermione felt very sorry for her, cooped up a few days before Christmas doing homework so had brought her up some tea and a mince pie to keep her spirits up. There was no answer from Rose so Hermione went ahead and opened the door, expecting to see her daughter hunched over at her desk. Instead she sat on her window seat, gazing out at the snow covered landscape.

"Rose, you are meant to be doing your homework!" Hermione scolded.

Rose's head whipped around to face her mother and Hermione gasped slightly at the sad look in her daughter's eyes. At age seventeen Rose no longer looked like a girl but a young lady. Her red hair now reached the middle of her ribs and it fell it messy ringlets rather than a bushy mane, her brown eyes stood out starkly from her pale face that supported a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. She sat with her slender body curled up against the window, looking tired and worn.

"Rose, what is it? Has something happened?" Hermione said gently, putting the small tea tray down on Rose's desk and coming to kneel in front of her.

"No mum, everything's fine, I just got a bit … distracted. I'll do some more work now I promise,"

"Rose don't give me this, I know something's wrong. Has something happened at school?"

Rose sighed and looked her mother in the eye. Hermione could see both determination and fear in her face as she nodded slowly.

"Well what is it?"

Rose took a deep breathe as if preparing herself for the worst, "I've got a boyfriend," She said slowly.

Startled, Hermione exhaled. She had been expecting something terrible.

"Well what's wrong with that – that's brilliant, you haven't really had much to do with boys since you and Thomas broke up last year, who is he, do we know him?

Again Rose took a deep breathe and this time closed her eyes, "It's Scorpius Malfoy" She said quietly

Hermione froze, taking in what her daughter had just said, trying to work out if she'd heard her correctly.

"Sc - Scorpius … Malfoy?" Hermione repeated slowly.

Rose nodded and to Hermione's horror a few tears slipped out of her closed eyes and rolled down her face.

"Rose! Why are you crying sweetie?"

"Because I knew you'd react like this!" Rose burst out, tears falling thick and fast now. "I can hear it in your voice, you're disgusted! You and Dad hate the Malfoy's! I couldn't have chosen a worse person to go out with! And now you're going to hate me and so is Dad! You've heard what he says every time he sees the family! Always telling me I have to do better than Scorp or making digs at the way his dad looks or acts – and the glares he gives him! And I've gone and started dating his son!

Rose could no longer speak, she buried her face in her knees, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Hermione sat, shocked to the core at her daughters words, trying as hard as she could to take everything in. Finally she gave her head a little shake and kneeled up so she could slip an arm around Rose and attempt to calm her down. But as soon as Hermione touched Rose, she froze, her crying quietened as she went stiff. Then ever so slowly she lifted her head up.

"You don't hate me?" She asked, her eyes red and puffy.

"Rose, I could never _ever _hate you and don't you dare ever think I would again! Now are you calm enough to talk about this?" Hermione asked

Rose hiccupped and nodded, tears still slowly sliding down her face.

"Is Scorpius nice to you?" Hermione asked.

Rose looked shocked at the question "Of course!"

"Does he respect you and listen to you?

Rose's brow knit it confusion but she nodded quickly.

"And does being with him make you happy?" Hermione said gently

And for the first time Rose smiled slightly, "Yes, I love being with him, he makes me feel like I've got nothing to worry about, I never have to explain anything to him, he just understands…" Rose trailed off, looking guilty at saying too much.

"Well if that's how you feel then why on earth wouldn't I like him?"

Rose's head whipped down to face her mother so quickly it must have hurt her neck, "What!" She gasped.

"Rose I don't care who his family are at all as long as you're happy with him – no truly I don't" She insisted at her daughters sceptical look. "I'm not going to deny that your father and I have had problems with Draco in the past but even I can see he's changed a bit since his school days and even if he hadn't it wouldn't matter as long as Scorpius is right for you. Did Uncle Harry being raised by his horrid relatives mean we refused to be friends with him? No! So does Scorpius coming from a family we've had … past disagreements with make any difference to him? No! I just want you to be happy Rose and if Scorpius makes you happy then I'm more than pleased that you're going out with him."

Rose blinked, looking shocked, "Really?"

"Really," Hermione said seriously "You can even invite him over for dinner and I won't spill hot soup or something on him."

Rose giggled, her blotchy face clearing at once, she suddenly dropped off the window seat and hugged her mother tightly.

"What about Dad though, he's not going to be happy," Rose said quietly

Hermione frowned, Rose had a point. Ron had clearly not dropped his past grudges against the Malfoy's and he certainly wouldn't be happy about Rose dating Scorpius.

"We'll talk to him okay, together. I'll be honest, he won't be happy at first but once we've talked to him about it and explained how happy you are he'll come round. It might take a little while but he will. He loves you and wants what's best for you so he'll accept it."

Rose nodded and hugged her mother again, Hermione smiled and stroked her daughter hair.

"Do you really really like him Rosie?" She asked, grinning.

"I really do, I can't … I can't imagine anybody better right now," She said quietly

"Then neither can I. I love you sweetie, you know that right?"

" 'Course I do, I love you to Mum,"

* * *

><p>Hmmm, ending might be a little bit mushy but I have no apologies for that - I'm in such a happy romantic mood it couldn't have ended any other way! This is my entry for My Dear Professor McGonagall's Mother and Child competition, I did that thing again where I mean to write a one-shot and then it kind of grows and grows! Anyway I hope you all liked it and please leave a review telling me your thoughts.<p>

I know I _still _haven't been posting much recently and I'm truly very very sorry. School and having a job just takes up so much time! That really weird thing is I first found out about fanfiction nearly a year ago now! I really can't believe it, I only realised becasue I know I found out about whilst revising for my GCSE's and now I'm just about to start my A-level revision! I can't believe it's been that long and I really want to thank everyone who's been so kind to me and welcomed me into this community - I still love it to bits and although I'm really busy I will carry on trying to keep up with it. Sorry for that little waffle then but people need to be thanked :)

Hannah x


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